Document Destruction

Former Gemstar-TV Guide International Inc. Chief Executive Henry Yuen may face jail time after a judge said a plea deal with prosecutors in a case over document destruction wasn't a sufficient punishment. U.S. District Judge John Walter at a hearing in Los Angeles tentatively rejected a proposed sentence of six months home detention, a $1-million donation to charities for fraud victims and a $250,000 fine that Yuen and federal prosecutors had agreed on for his guilty plea.

MOADAMYEH, Syria - As his camcorder scanned the charred walls and partially collapsed roof of the mosque on the outskirts of town, Adnan Sheikh began his narration like he had dozens of other times: "Moadamyeh al Sham, 8-30-2012, the remnants of the damage and destruction that Assad's gangs inflicted when they stormed the city," he said. "Even the houses of worship were not spared. " A former physical education teacher here, Sheikh carries his camera wherever he goes these days.

Lawyers for Prudential Insurance Co. clients on Wednesday asked a judge to order a criminal investigation into the company's destruction of documents relevant to allegations of fraud by Prudential sales agents. Prudential "has engaged in criminal obstruction of justice," said the lawyers from the Pittsburgh law firm of Malakoff Doyle & Finberg. They made the charge in a motion before U.S. District Judge Alfred M. Wolin, who is presiding over a class-action lawsuit against the company.

PHOENIX -- In the latest example that Congress is keeping a focused eye on the NFL, a senior senator said Friday that he wants the league to explain why it destroyed the videotapes from a cheating scandal involving the New England Patriots. "I do believe that it is a matter of importance," Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) said at a news conference, the same day his comments on the matter appeared in the New York Times.

A federal judge fined Prudential Insurance Co. $1 million on Monday for repeatedly destroying documents relevant to a massive life insurance fraud lawsuit, and he criticized the company's top executives for failing to inform employees of a court order banning such destruction. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Alfred M.

A longtime lawyer for major cigarette manufacturers said Monday that government lawyers got it wrong when they speculated he would testify he knew firsthand that the industry had destroyed documents. Justice Department lawyers had written in a court filing that attorney Robert Northrip would say he knew that documents central to a lawsuit in Australia were destroyed. The suit involved an Australian subsidiary of British American Tobacco Co.

Lt. Col. Oliver North's $7,000 government-issue paper shredder was quick--it could chop one sheet of paper into 10,000 pieces in a second. But it was hardly high-tech or high volume when compared to document-shredding equipment used by firms in the records destruction business. Many document destruction workers travel in mobile units using Department of Defense-approved machinery that shreds, pounds and bales papers into a fibrous material small enough to be eaten by worms.

Nancy Temple, a lawyer for accounting firm Andersen being quizzed about her role in the shredding of Enron Corp. documents, cited her 5th Amendment right to keep silent 138 times Friday. Temple was deposed by lawyers who had filed a class-action suit against Andersen, which approved Enron's financial statements. In an unusual move, a federal judge in Houston permitted Temple and eight other Andersen employees to be questioned much earlier than such a case would normally allow.

Prosecutors in the Pentagon bribery and fraud investigation have learned of several instances of documents being destroyed by people implicated in the probe, according to court papers released Wednesday. The information was contained in a brief from the office of Henry E. Hudson, the U.S. attorney in Alexandria, Va., to a federal judge in Brooklyn whom the Long Island newspaper Newsday has asked to unseal certain documents.

Prudential Insurance Co. of America and its top officers didn't obstruct justice when the company destroyed documents sought by policyholders who are suing the firm, a judge ruled Wednesday. Special Master Justin Walder, who investigated the matter on behalf of U.S. District Judge Alfred Wolin in Newark, N.J., ruled that several incidents of document destruction weren't the result of official policy.

A federal judge said Thursday that CIA interrogation videotapes may have been relevant to a case he's presiding over, and he gave the Bush administration three weeks to explain why they were destroyed in 2005 and say whether other evidence was destroyed. Several judges are considering wading into the dispute over the videos, but U.S. District Judge Richard W. Roberts was the first to demand a written report on the matter.

A senior House Republican said information gathered by the House Intelligence Committee indicated that a high-ranking CIA official ordered the destruction of videotapes depicting agency interrogation sessions even though he was directed not to do so. The remark by Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.) contradicts previous accounts that suggested that Jose A. Rodriguez Jr., the CIA official who ordered the tapes destroyed, was never instructed to preserve them.

Shortly after he arrived as CIA director in 2004, Porter J. Goss met with the agency's top spies and general counsel to discuss a range of issues, including what to do with videotapes showing harsh interrogations of Al Qaeda detainees, according to current and former officials familiar with the matter. "Getting rid of tapes in Washington," Goss said, according to an official involved in the discussions, "is an extremely bad idea."

The controversy over destroyed CIA interrogation tapes is shaping up as a turf battle involving the courts, Congress and the White House, with the Bush administration telling its constitutional equals to stay out of the investigation. The Justice Department says it needs time and the freedom to investigate the destruction of hundreds of hours of recordings of two suspected terrorists. After Atty. Gen. Michael B.

Lawmakers leading the Senate investigation of the CIA's destruction of interrogation videotapes said there were gaps in the testimony of CIA Director Michael V. Hayden on Tuesday and outlined plans to call a series of witnesses as part of an expanding probe. "We had a useful and not yet complete hearing," said Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, in comments after the 90-minute, closed-door session with the CIA director.

The Justice Department rejected a settlement offer that accounting firm Arthur Andersen made to avoid a trial on an obstruction of justice charge, a lawyer for the firm said Thursday. The rejection was received late in the day, Rusty Hardin said. "We are now preparing for trial," he said. Hardin had sent a letter to the Justice Department on Wednesday restating Andersen's position in the negotiations when talks broke off last week. Andersen, Enron Corp.'

In a development that could lead to court sanctions and penalties from state regulators, Prudential Insurance Co. disclosed Monday that one of its offices recently destroyed documents relevant to investigations of charges that its agents defrauded millions of life insurance buyers. The disclosure comes at a particularly bad time for the nation's largest insurance company. Newark, N.J.

A federal judge on Monday ordered the White House to preserve copies of all its e-mails, a move that Bush administration lawyers had argued strongly against. U.S. District Judge Henry Kennedy directed the president's executive office to safeguard the material, in response to two lawsuits that seek to determine whether the White House has destroyed e-mails in violation of federal law. The White House says it has been taking steps to preserve copies of all e-mails and will continue to do so.

A lawyer for Vice President Dick Cheney told the Secret Service to eliminate data on who visited Cheney at his official residence, a newly disclosed letter states. The Sept. 13, 2006, letter from Cheney's lawyer says logs for Cheney's home are subject to the Presidential Records Act, which prevents the public from learning who visited him.